Snow days

 

It's been a snowy February in my mid-Atlantic region, where just three weeks ago long-range forecasters were predicting a winter of very little snow: "Sorry skiers!" they were saying.

But now there are several inches of snow on the ground with more to come. And once there's snow on a huge tract of land, reflecting the sun's heat back into space, what will happen next is anyone's guess.

While walking to the end of my driveway to get the morning newspaper yesterday, my head was down as a measure of extra care to try to prevent a fall. I was thinking about how when I was young looking at a newly fallen field of snow made me think about how lovely a sight it was. That virgin white. Now, in my early sixties, all it made me think of was how many floaters I have in my aging eyes. Will I ever need cataract surgery, or will death find me first?

* Photo note. The photo is of a woman named Katherine, who lived in the same apartment building as I did in Philadelphia. It was taken during a major storm in the aughts. She was a neat young woman who had just become a school teacher. I didn't know her very well, and like many in my small apartment building (a six-unit converted rowhouse) she moved into a better place after a few months, unlike me, a loser, who lived there for twenty years. When I first saw her shoveling I thought it was a kid helping out a mom or dad, she looked so small, but although Katherine was not very tall, she was no kid.